November 2 2008

We are enjoying one of the best springs ever. The grass is green, the cows are fat and the chooks are happy! We still find it hard to believe that we can have such great weather - Tim Flannery and Al Gore had us convinced it would never rain again.

We are about to collect a new lot of day-old chicks, they should begin to lay as we go into autumn. Our current lot of pullets will start to lay in December, so we will again have some pullets eggs available before Christmas.

We had a visit from Ken on Friday, he took some great photos before a storm hit, there are a couple on our "This Season" page if you want to have a look - he is a real photographer, not a happy snapper like me! Thanks Ken.

September 1 2008

We welcome two new customers this week. Gingers Organics and Tongue Teasers Wahroonga. Check out the full list.

We've had rain again!! About 40 mm over the last 2 days, this is the best timing for us as we enter spring - August was very cold with many severe frosts which stopped any grass growth, in fact the frosts burnt off fresh growth, so now we should see the feed take off.

On the ABC television tonight 4 Corners did an excellent story on the power of the big supermarkets and how farmers provide the low priced products for customers but pay the ultimate price by going broke doing it. A farmer told us that he received 25c/kg for his pumpkins. The same pumpkins were selling for $2.50/kg in Woolworths just down the road a few kilometres. Makes me wonder if 'the fresh food people' should change their slogan to something more relevant, maybe you can think of something? Also the ACCC came under scrutiny for its recent finding that the large supermarkets were not exerting too much influence on the prices that farmers are forced to accept. These are serious allegations, Graeme Samual in my opinion should be very worried about his job. If you missed it then look up the transcript on the ABC site. This matter is of the highest concern to me and to you. If you are a Woollies shareholder and you think that the dividends and capital growth of your shares is more important than the bigger picture, then I suggest to you that you are being short-sighted in the extreme . See our FAQ page for more.

August 17, 2008

Our website is complete (I think), check out Our Story and Gallery plus the Client List now has a list of those that use our eggs in commercial cooking and the client list has local Hunter Valley customers listed as well.

Your feedback is very welcome, both types! Send us an email if you like, we like to hear what you think.

August 12, 2008

Its cold!

Frosty mornings and overcast grey cold days, although today wasn't as bad, we had some sunshine at least. This is the type of August we used to have before the drought started in 2001 – we hope it is a sign that the seasons will be more predictable in the future.

Papanui is green but the cold weather has slowed pasture growth.

The cows are having calves, we are about 75% of the way through calving and they look good. The yearling cattle are starting to get hold of better quality feed, they deserve it, it has been a long cold winter, but spring is only weeks away now.

Best news for you egg hungry people is that the new pullets are laying well, so we should be able to send lots more eggs to the shops this coming week. Keep an eye out for the “P Plated Papanui Pullets Eggs” - they are in the same pale blue cartons as our regular eggs, just a different label. These eggs are smaller (40 to 50 grams each) but they are superb, in fact the best eggs we produce. It seems to be a bit of a well kept secret, but those “in the know” ask especially for the pullets eggs – chefs mainly, but also some switched on householders. We only have these eggs two or three times a year for a few weeks at a time, so get in early or miss out until next time. Also any feedback regarding the pullets label – both types welcome, we are not sure if the label is getting the message across as well as our regular egg label, so please let us know if we could do better.

Whilst on the subject of egg labels, just so everyone is clear about this, our regular egg carton label has the egg weight as a minimum of 50 grams each. The actual egg weight will vary from 52 grams all the way up to say 80 grams. When the eggs get bigger than this they will not fit into the egg carton properly, so they can break making a real mess, so we keep these ones at home. When we get a new lot of chooks (pullets) beginning their laying cycle their eggs are smaller than the older hens'. So everyone has a fair shake we alternate small and big eggs within each carton, this also helps with fitting in the larger eggs. So when you open your eggs over the next month or so don't think someone has been having a game with you, the variation in size is intended – you are participating in nature's cycle. Our longer term customers will have seen this before, sorry to bore you!

To those retailers waiting to be included in our delivery schedule for the first time, we haven't forgotten you, just let us get our existing retailers requirements satisfied first, then we will contact you in the order you were added to our waiting list.

June 4, 2008

We've had rain!! 65 mm over the last 2 days on Papanui. There were some green grass shoots that had been just surviving on the foggy mornings and the small falls of rain over the last month, and today they have doubled in size already. The chooks have been walking around with muddy feet and the eggs get a bit muddy too sometimes when it gets so wet, just means we have to work a bit harder in the packing shed. You can look forward to even darker yolks in the weeks to come.

May 18, 2008

I forgot to mention that we had a visit from Aaron and Alana from Origin of Energy, see their website www.originofenergy.com a couple of months ago. Also with them on the day was Marty from longrain restaurant www.longrain.com and Anthia from Ovvio organics www.ovvioorganics.com.au . They were interested in how we run the chooks, lots of questions about organics and the real world too. They were lots of fun to have around, these are very positive people, they are great. Alana shot a video of Aaron interviewing Mark in front of one of the chook buses, if you would like to view it it is on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9VwZYFHvqU

May 16, 2008

Hello from Di and Mark and the chooks.

We are in the process of getting this site finished, please bear with us as this is the last thing that gets done around here after all the other urgent farm jobs take precedence.

We are producing more eggs than we were this time last year but we still can't satisfy demand, so don't blame the shop keepers, its not their fault. The next lot of new chooks (pullets) are due to start to lay in August, so keep an eye out for the light blue cartons with “P Plated Papanui Pullets Eggs” on the label. They sell for less per dozen than our regular eggs as they are smaller, but we reckon they are the best eggs of all. Not all of our shop keepers stock them, so if you want to try them ask them to get some in.

Once again it is very dry here with no rainfall of any significance since February. There is still heaps of ground cover, mostly dead plant litter from the big rains we received from last June. The mice in the paddocks have multiplied to near plague proportions due to the abundant food produced from the big rains, and as the days cool down they are finding their way into our sheds and houses, so daily trap patrols are now part of our list of jobs ( we don't like to use poisons, too many animals around here to worry about finding dead mice and in turn becoming poisoned ). The chooks think it is all good fun, you should see them chasing mice around the paddock, its like a rolling ruck in a good game of Rugby!